New Delhi (TIP)- Actor-athlete Praveen Kumar Sobti, best known for playing Bheem in the TV series “Mahabharat” and for winning an Asian Games gold medal, died following a cardiac arrest late Monday, Feb 7,  evening.  The 74-year-old actor breathed his last at his Ashok Vihar residence here. “He had a chronic chest infection problem. At night, when he started feeling uneasy, we called the doctor at home. He passed away between 10-10.30 PM following a cardiac arrest,” a relative of Praveen told PTI.  Sobti, who hailed from a humble family in Sarhali Kalan village near Amritsar, was 20 when he joined the Border Security Force (BSF), where he was first noticed for his athletic skills. The athlete dominated the discus and hammer throw events for many years during the 1960s and 70s, winning medals in three Asian Games, one Commonwealth Games and taking part in two Olympics — the 1968 Mexico editions and the ill-fated 1972 Games in Munich — where Israeli athletes were massacred by a Palestinian terrorist group.

 He came up with his career-best efforts in the two Olympics — 60.84m in hammer throw (1968) and 53.12m in discus throw (1972).

 Sobti’s discus throw gold medals in the Asiad came in the 1966 and 1970 editions. He won a hammer throw bronze in the 1966 Asian Games and a silver in the same discipline in the Commonwealth Games that year. He also won a discus throw silver in the 1974 Asian Games. His hammer throw silver (in 1966) remains the only one that an Indian has won at the CWG. It was India’s maiden medal in a field event in the Commonwealth Games and only the second in athletics after Milkha Singh’s 440 yard gold in the 1958 edition. He gained further popularity after he began his acting career and featured as Bheem in BR Chopra’s classic “Mahabharat” in 1988.

As an actor, Sobti featured in supporting parts in close to 50 movies like “Yudh”, “Adhikar”, “Hukumat”, “Shahenshah”, “Ghayal”, “Aaj Ka Arjun” and Tamil film “Michael Madana Kama Rajan”.

He entered politics in 2013 when he joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to contest the Delhi assembly elections. However, Sobti lost to BJP’s Mahender Nagpal. After that, he joined the BJP in 2014.He is survived by wife, daughter, two younger brothers and a sister.